Category: Web Design

South Carolina SEOGenerate Leads and Grow Your Business

You may be wondering what the secret is to getting to the top of South Carolina SEO. Or if you live outside of the Palmetto State, how you can get to the top of search engines.

No matter where you are, the process is the same. To get great SEO rankings anywhere, there are a few main things you need to consider. We've laid out the top 5 SEO tactics that you need to tackle below:

1. Target the Right Keywords

When you start any SEO campaign it's important that first, you do keyword research. A reputable SEO company near you will probably ask you what your goal is and what keywords or phrases you are after. That data is then taken to do keyword research and figure out which keywords are the best targets.

You'll want to target high volume keywords that people are searching for a lot for your particular business.

2. Create Great Content

Content is still king. Google and other search engines crawl every inch of your site so it's important for your website to have great content. If you really cater to your target customer and think about what they want and what information they are looking for, you will be able to craft engaging content that ranks high.

Creating regular blog posts is a great way to build depth on your website and drive traffic. You can craft your blogs to focus on specific target keywords to continue your quest for ranking high on search engines.

3. Mobile Responsiveness & Speed

Your website design should be mobile responsive—over 60% of users are accessing your website from their phone, so a great mobile experience is paramount to your SEO strategy. Google will actually penalize your rankings for your site not being mobile responsive.

If you haven't updated your website design in a while it may be time to refresh your design to keep up with the latest standards.

4. Boost Your Backlinks

Backlinks are still a huge part of SEO rankings. If you want to rank high, you should have hundreds and even thousands of links on websites that “link back" to your website. Having your company listed on websites with high domain authority (usually big sites with lots of traffic) will give you great backlinks.

Social media profiles, business directory listings (like Yelp, YP, and Tripadvisor), news sites (via press releases) are just a few places you can get great backlinks for your site.

5. Track Your Data

Your website data, rankings and traffic should be tracked during your SEO campaign, so you can make adjustments to your South Carolina SEO strategy as you go. Knowledge is power, and knowing exactly where you are ranked for your target keywords will help you improve your website's visibility over time. For SEO beginners, MOZ has a great beginner's guide to refer to.

Remember that SEO is an investment that takes time. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Same thing with SEO.

Finally, Hire the Right South Carolina SEO Company

SEO is a tremendous undertaking for DIY business owners. In many cases the entire SEO budget can be paid for with a just few jobs. SEO will generate revenue for years to come once you’ve invested the time, money and effort into it.

Call Fu Dog Media today or fill out our contact form to get started on your South Carolina SEO project.

We’ve heard every excuse in the book for not building a professional website design or focusing efforts on Search Engine Optimization.

We have heard it over and over throughout the years from busy entrepreneurs—”I don’t have time to work on my website because {insert excuse here}.” Also, “I don’t need SEO. I have plenty of business.”

Or my favorite, “SEO is expensive.”

You’re right SEO IS expensive. It’s so expensive that it’s costing you, not the price of your package from your SEO company, but it is costing you thousands and thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Every time you do not come up in the search engine results, you are losing money. Think about the amount of searches for services exactly like yours that you have zero chance at. The numbers will blow your mind if you really think about it.

Your money is online. SEO and Web Design help you get there.

We’ve also heard from the same people that their leads are drying up and the phone hasn’t been ringing. Sigh.

If you own a business, you need a website. If you own a business, you need SEO. Even if you are already busy with all the referrals you can handle, you need a website and you need SEO.

But, why do I need a professional website and SEO if I’m already busy?

Professionalism – No website? Then you’re already behind the 8 ball. As soon as you get compared online by a customer, you lose to the company who has a pro website.

Referrals are not guaranteed –No matter how big you build your referral network, they can dry up and they can slow down. If anything, when referrals are great it is the exact time to attack your online presence because you want to build a sustainable growing business.

Dominance – Some people are in business to do just enough to get by. Some people want to be the best and dominate their field. If you’re the latter, then you want to dominate the search engine every time someone types in a keyword related to your business. Think it’s not important and you can wait for your search rankings to organically grow? Over 90% of searchers never go past the first page of Google Results!

Quality of Customers – You can serve customer A or customer B. Customer A is cheap, complains and ends up costing you in the long run. Customer B is your perfect customer. Customer B spends money, doesn’t complain, wants results, and is willing to pay for them. With the right online strategy, the right customers come to you. There is a point as a business where you take everything you can get for survival, and there is also a point as a business that you get to define who your customer is. A professional web design and top Google page rankings is a big piece of that puzzle.

Selling Your Business – Being at the top of Google with an amazing online presence adds value to your business and down the road, if you do decide to sell, your buyer will be very happy that you have spent the time and money on dominating with your online presence.

The money is online – Whose got your money? The people holding cell phones, typing on laptops, and browsing through tablets. They’ve got your money. Are you connecting with them? When they ask, “who is the best company in Charleston for {insert service here}?” are you coming up?

So, should you have SEO and a Professional Website Design?

I could honestly go on for hours, maybe days on all the reasons that you should have a professional website design and search engine optimization. The end results if you are working with the best of the best in web design and SEO are fantastic. Being on the first page of Google can change your entire business. This isn’t a sales pitch for Fu Dog Media. This is just simple truth. If you want to be a dominant force in your industry, you should do the things that will make you dominant.

Your business deserves more than an average DIY Website Builders

Being in this business for a quite some time now, we’ve heard just about everything. One thing that comes up often is potential clients turning down a website proposal in favor of a DIY website builder like Wix, Weebly, or SquareSpace. There’s definitely a market for these and it makes sense for startup companies on a shoestring budget. Most of them are pretty easy to use and they will get you online quickly.

Just like many things in life though, you get what you pay for, or don’t pay for in this case. There are many reasons to avoid DIY website builders, but we’re going to give you our top 5 below.

1. Templates Versus Custom Website Design – “I’m just going to do it myself.” – With all of these DIY builders you choose a template that 100’s or 1000’s before you have picked, you add your logo, some pictures, some text, and voila…new website. So easy right? But, you put a lot of thought into your company before you decided to start it. Is your website sending out the right message? Does it appeal to your target market? Are you saying the right things to convert traffic into leads or sales? Chances are you are missing out on a lot of conversions which means you are missing out on a lot of revenue.

2. SEO and Design is Limited on Website Builders – “I can handle SEO. I’ve Googled it.” – With every DIY website builder, you only have access to so many parts of your site. You can’t get into the core files, you don’t own them, and you can’t move them when you’re ready. What that also means is you can’t properly optimize your site for search engines. At least not the way you can with a custom design on your own hosting account. You are also limited on design options and features. Doing it yourself equals lost rankings and lost revenue.

3. Scalability – “I think I’ve outgrown my site.” – As your company grows, you will have different needs. Can your website scale with your business? Most likely with a website builder, you are going to realize that the answer is no. Which means, wasted time building a website you aren’t going to keep on a platform that you will have to transfer. Anything you have built on the old website builder, you’ll have to recreate with your new web designer. If you have the budget, build your website the right way from the beginning.

4. UX (User Experience) – “Look how pretty my website is.” – Using a website builder, your UX will suffer. Why? Because you’re limited to your template and your likely limited design skills. Can you create graphics and edit photos like a professional? For most people, the answer is no. Google has a certain set of standards it likes to see with the way your copy is organized on a page as well and your rankings are partially determined by your website’s readability. There’s a lot more factors than just a nice looking site. A website has to give users a certain experience and feeling that will turn them into a customer.

5. Time is Money –“I give up. I need a professional!” – As a business owner, our time should be spent on growing the business, selling product, making relationships, etc. Business owners can be bogged down by so many things and wearing so many hats that the business suffers. It is time consuming to build your own website and try to figure out if you are doing things the right way.

Heard Enough? Allow Us to Create Your New Website!

Our team of experts at Fu Dog Media can handle your website makeover on your behalf. We will first identify your current areas of concern and then work directly with you to create a strategic plan to redesign and revamp it accordingly. Give us a call today so we can get started!

Why Your Website Needs an SSL Certificate

Having a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate for your website may seem like an unnecessary, add-on expense. However, it has several key benefits that prove otherwise.

Function Beats Fashion
The SSL certificate is more of a behind-the-scenes feature, so it does not add any “fashionable elements” to your web design. However, per LinkedIn, it creates a secured connection between your server and the customer’s web browser – ensuring that all information remains private and reduces the possibility of data breaches. Therefore, in many ways, it is one of the most important add-on features that you should select when building a new or revamping an existing website.

Add a Touch of Professionalism
On the surface, an SSL certificate gives your website an added touch of appeal and professionalism. Visitors and clients know that their information is safe and secure as soon as they enter a website protected by SSL. It really does not matter if you are selling products or services through your website or not. An SSL certificate still boosts your image by ensuring consumers that they are exploring a professional website by a reputable brand or business.

Reassurance for Paying Customers
Many online consumers get a little hesitant when the checkout page pops up during a transaction and they are asked to input their credit card or check information. However, the appearance of an SSL certificate icon reassures them of the website’s security. As a result, this certificate essentially helps to boost your conversion rate and reduces your shopping cart abandonment rate.
Keep in mind that 88% of online consumers completely abandon an online shopping cart without completing the transaction, per Kissmetrics. Therefore, anything that you can do to reduce that rate for your own website could equate to a substantial return for your business.

Protect Your Own Data
In addition to protecting the data of your customer, clients and guests, an SSL certificate is also designed to protect your own data. Whether you are sending a free eBook to a website visitor or receiving a sales order from a new customer, the SSL certificate works behind the scenes to keep the information you either send or receive protected.

We Can Get You Set Up!

If you are still on the fence about why you should invest in an SSL certificate, just give us a call at Fu Dog Media. Our company specializes in graphic design, responsive web design and online marketing. Our experts will answer any questions that you have and show you exactly how you can add an SSL certificate to your website today.

What is a responsive website design?

A responsive website design is website which will automatically adjust and render correctly to the size of the screen of your device, regardless of which platform or browser you’re viewing it on. No matter the device—a mobile, a tablet, a laptop or a desktop, the website will automatically adjust to fit the screen so you can make sure your users have the absolute best experience possible.

From SEO experts to Google themselves, and most digital marketing or website design blogs, the standard is responsive website design. Opting for a responsive web design is more important than ever with Google placing more emphasis on mobile user experience.

SEO BENEFITSGoogle says that “users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices”, meaning that Google consider your site’s responsive in their page rankings. Basically, your organic rankings will improve with a properly responsive website design, optimized for search.

RECEIVE A QUOTE FOR RESPONSIVE WEB DESIGNIf you would like to learn more about responsive websites, contact us at Fu Dog Media today!

How to Choose the Best Website Design Company for Your Business

Starting a new business can be overwhelming with a laundry list of things to do to get a new business going. When it comes to the branding of your company, choosing a logo design company will be one of your top priorities and after your logo is designed, your website design will be high priority. There are some important things you should know about choosing the best website design company in Charleston, SC.

Choose a Web Design Company with a Solid Track Record
When selecting a web design company, it’s important to research them thoroughly. Some things you can do to make sure you are making the best choice for web design are to read online reviews, view their project portfolio and seek out references from some of their customers. Usually searching through their website portfolio will be a good indicator of the quality of work. Make sure to check websites projects on both your computer and mobile device so you can see that the company is designing mobile responsive websites as over 60% of website traffic is coming from users on mobile devices.

Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) important to you?
When your site is being built, the right web design company can also optimize your website for search engines like Google and Bing. If SEO is an important part of your marketing strategy, which it should be, SEO experience should be a factor in choosing a web design agency. A design agency should be able to show you case studies of current or past SEO clients so you can see results they have had with previous SEO clients. The right SEO company will provide you with ongoing SEO reports, analytics and progress on your target keywords so you can see exactly how your website’s keywords are performing.

Will you be managing your website content?
There are tons of options for website builders out there like Wix, Squarespace, and Godaddy Website Builder, but they offer very limited customization options. With a WordPress website design, your website is highly customizable and is powered with a very easy to use interface that we recommend for companies who want to manage their own site. This is particularly important when your website will be changing frequently or when you are managing an e-commerce site. If you are planning on managing your own site, WordPress is a great option. There are tons of plugins available to easily get the most out of your website and developers are constantly creating new themes, plugins and extensions that work with WordPress.

Does the web design company ask the right questions?
What are your goals? That’s one of the most important questions a web design company can ask. Designing a website isn’t just about creating a beautiful site. Your web designer should know exactly what you want to accomplish with your website. Do you want to convert traffic to sales in your online store? Do you want to generate leads via contact forms? Do you want to be #1 for target keywords on Google? What image do you want to convey with your brand?So many times, web designers are just churning out websites with no regard for the outcome. Choose a web design company that has your end result in mind. Dominating search engines and creating a beautiful and functional website go hand-in-hand.

Choose a Company that Communicates
One of the biggest pitfalls of web design companies is a lack of communication. You can usually tell how well a company is going to communicate early on in the process. How quickly are they returning calls and emails? How quickly did they get you a quote? Did they answer all your questions throughly? Are they thorough in asking about your goals for your new website design or redesign of your current site?All of these things are indicators of how well a web design company will communicate during the design process. Communication between the design team and the customer is so important in accomplishing a great design.

Cost vs. Value — You get what you pay for.
In today’s world, your website is one of the most important factors to having a successful business, and not just a beautiful design either. It needs to load quickly and be extremely user-friendly for website visitors. While cost is always a factor, your decision should not be based on cost entirely. There will always be someone willing to design your website cheaper, but what will you sacrifice by saving money in the short run? Time and time again, we’ve seen companies sell themselves short by choosing a cheap website design company or a website builder, and then come back to us asking for help. While there are times where a shoestring budget may be all you have, investing money into your website in the beginning will pay dividends in the future.It takes time to build your web presence and to rank on Google. If you have a subpar website designed, your wasting valuable time that you could be gaining more business via website traffic. A well designed website is not cheap, but the value you get back from that design and search engine optimization will pay off big time down the road.

Top Reasons Why You Need A WordPress Care Plan

WordPress is one of the most popular content content management systems in the world, boasting over 74,650,000 sites.

The WordPress Advantage and Issues

While WordPress is a very user-friendly site, it does require regular upkeep and maintenance. WordPress websites, including blogs, business sites, and e-commerce sites, run the risk of security issues, lost data and even having malware become an issue.

The way to avoid these issues is to use a WordPress care plan. These plans, which come in a variety of different options for various types of sites, will provide security and protection by:

Site back-up – in the event of a site crashing or a corruption of a file, having a backup in place means that there is no need to recreate the content, just simply reinstall from the latest backup version

Security patches installed – vulnerabilities in the platform are constantly exposed by hackers, just as with any online platform. With a WordPress care plan, security updates are automatically installed, preventing this issue.

Update plugins – outdated plugins can slow down the website performance or even cause error messages for your users. By using the plan, all plugins operating on the site will be fully up to date.

Monitor uptime – knowing if your site is up and also addressing the reasons why it may be down will be essential, particularly for businesses and e-commerce sites.

Fresh content – with any type of site, having fresh content is important to not only keep users coming back but also to help with SEO rankings and positions on search results.

How to get a WordPress Care Plan

WordPress care plans allow you to focus on your business, blog or e-commerce site without having to spend hours on maintenance. Full updates of WordPress versions will also be provided, making this a great investment in your online presence. Sign up now for a plan at https://fudogmedia.net/wordpress-maintenance-packages/.

5 Signs Your Website Design Needs a Makeover

For one reason or another, your website may have lost its flair and magnetic appeal. It may not be able to generate the same traffic as it once did. It may have worked once upon a time, but is no longer as effective. Here are several signs that may indicate your website needs a complete makeover.

Dated Images, Fonts and ContentHow long have you had your images, font and content posted and published on your website? They may have been impressive at the time. However, just like fashionable trends, web design trends come and go. If your images and font selection seem dated, this may be a clear telltale sign that a complete makeover is necessary.

Abandoned Shopping Carts IncreaseEighty-eight percent of online consumers abandon their shopping carts and leave them behind, per Kissmetrics – over 40 percent of which do so simply because they were not ready to make a purchase. You can reduce your shopping cart abandonment rates by enhancing your website to focus more on keeping your customers interested and engaged. Integrate pop-ups when they may click away from your page – offering promotional codes or discounted offers to stay put and continue shopping.

Accessing Website from Various DevicesAre you able to access your website with a variety of different devices without losing efficiency or encountering errors? Your website may look perfect and beautifully structured on a desktop or laptop computer. However, can the same thing be said when accessing your site from a tablet or smartphone? A complete website makeover that implements a responsive design can fix all of that for you, according to Inc. magazine.Responsive designs add a flexible element to your website infrastructure, allowing your site to be viewed and easily accessed without any hiccups regardless of the device or system used.

Page Loading TimesHow long does it take for your webpages to load? Per KissMetrics, most online users abandon a website completely if it takes longer than 6-10 seconds for the page to load. Further studies show that you will start losing engaged users within the first 4-5 seconds. Therefore, if you notice any type of delay when loading any of your webpages, it may be time for a website makeover.

Heard Enough? Allow Us to Create Your New Website!

Our team of experts at Fu Dog Media can handle your website makeover on your behalf. We will first identify your current areas of concern and then work directly with you to create a strategic plan to redesign and revamp it accordingly. Give us a call today so we can get started!